3 Reasons Your Stress Urinary Incontinence Hasn't Resolved

19 million women in the US suffer from some form of bladder incontinence.  Many women wait until the symptoms are so bad that they have abandoned the activities that they love.  Women often think that as long as symptoms don't get worse, they can deal with they dysfunction they have. I am sorry to tell you that 9 times out of 10 symptoms worsen and if they aren't limiting you from doing what you love today, someday it will. 

Social media promotes movement based pelvic floor recovery and traditional treatment is based around Kegels. Both are short sided. Women are taught about weak and tight pelvic floor muscles. Common, unseen drivers of pelvic floor dysfunction that are often not part of a pelvic floor recovery plan often leave women feeling like pelvic floor therapy was not so helpful. Here are 3 things you should know:

1. Constipation or IBS can be prime drivers of leaking and prolapse. Even if your baseline is going a few days without a BM, you may be putting your bladder under pressure that is driving your incontinence. Both IBS and constipation can drive inflammation and irritate your bladder. 

2. Abdominal surgery scar adhesions. Yes, even something as seemingly innocuous as an appendectomy can initiate a change in your abdominal fascial system that creates tension around the bladder that can lead to incontinence.

3. Old ankle injuries can also drive pelvic floor dysfunction. The ankle/foot is connected to the pelvic floor through shared nerves. The pelvic floor also is the recipient of forces coming from the ground up so if your foot, ankle, knee or hip are not working well your pelvic floor can develop symptoms. 

Bottom Line: If you have stress urinary incontinence you can't just blame your pelvic floor. Truthfully, I have just given you 3 common causes, but there are many. An individualized TOTAL BODY assessment matters. 

If you are dealing with minor leaking, remember that it is easier to fix a smaller problem than a bigger one. If you want to try to start your healing journey on your own:

1. Start with breath work to start to learn how you are managing pressure with movement and speaking. 

2. Forget Kegels for now. Focus on hip strength WITH your breath work

3. Consider an eval. I promise you will walk away with so much more insight and direction!